How To Live With Fate: {Star Driver}

12 - Galaxy Star Girl (Part 2)

"Have you seen her today?"

"Nah, Arata never brings her around here."

"That's obvious. He has a stigma about her hanging out with us. Imagine him witnessing her in the middle of a bunch of sweaty, thirsty shirtless men?"

"They'd try to devour her and he'd kill them all!"

"That's about right." The three scream and hug each other tight when Arata appears behind them. He had slid his workout shirt on before approaching. Takuto and Kazuma sigh in relief and Wako pouts. Arata takes a sip of his water bottle. "Why are you guys here?"

"W-We're looking for M-Midori no me." Takuto stutters.

Arata scrunches up his nose, "Who?"

"Niika-chan." Wako tells him.

"Oh. I don't know where she is right now. Doesn't she walk home with you guys now?"

"She hasn't been since Kazuma yelled at her."

Arata shoots a glare in the whitenette's direction, "He did what?"

"Don't you dare Takuto! She's hasn't been before that!"

"By yelling you're only proving my point." Kazuma makes a "tch" noise.

Arata had already dialed Niika's cell number. When he gets a voicemail, he dials again. It's the same outcome. "She always answers her phone..." He takes a moment to breathe. "Honda-kun, I'm leaving early. I'll leave the rest to you today." He grabs his schoolbag off the nearby bench with his left. As he passes the others, he picks Kazuma up by his school blazer. The emerald-eyed male wriggles furiously as he is slung across Arata's right shoulder like a towel. Wako and Takuto gulp in unison. "Let's go."

"ARATAAAAAAAAA! PUT ME DOWNNNNNNNNNNN!"

____________

"Stop." Sugata holds out a hand. Both he and Niika rest after sparring in the dojo. "You seem unusually down the last few days. I haven't said anything because it wasn't affecting our training sessions. But I'm concerned about how it's affecting you personally. What's the problem, Miss Taka~I mean Niika-chan?"

"I'm alright, Sugata-sama."

"We've stopped training for the day, so you don't have to call me that." He tells her, "I'm asking as your friend, Sugata, what is wrong?"

"S-Sugata, then." Niika sighs, "I don't mean to act this way. I just..." Niika grips her bo staff. She sits normally on the dojo floor. "Even though you've praised me a lot in the recent days, I feel like...it's not...amounting to much."

Sugata put away the other pieces of training equipment. "How so?"

"I-I still feel weak."

"Why?"

Niika bites her lip, "Last week, Hyou came to my house. Takuto and Kazuma came by too. I'd never had friends over before, and I was excited to see them. Everything was going well...until Kazu-kun found out that Hyou-chan was the northern maiden."

"Ah. I can only imagine how well he took that."

"It was not well at all." Niika tells him, "He immediately got all dark and angry with her. He started yelling at her before she could explain herself. I tried to, but he wouldn't listen. And somehow I...I yelled at him back." Sugata looks her way, "I tried my best, to get across Hyou's feelings. He doesn't know what she had to go through! Taken against her will? Falling in love out of the blew, only to have that love torn away from her without a warning!" Niika tears up at the thought of Hyou's pain. "Hearing her story made me sad; I felt so sorry for her. I had no idea what I could do to make her feel better. With Kazuma not knowing Hyou's circumstances, I knew he'd react the way that he did. I just wanted him to hear the whole story and feel like I did. But instead of standing there protecting my friend, I ran away." The hand she had laid on the floor grips into a fist. "I felt like I had lost the battle before I even really began to fight...How can I end up piloting a cybody feeling this way?"